The Bulbils and Pro-embryo of Lamprothamnus 
alopecuroides, A. Braun. 
BY 
MARY M c NICOL, B.Sc. 
Platt Biological Scholar in the University of Manchester. 
With Plate VIII. 
AMP ROTH AMNU S is a genus of the Characeae placed in the 
subdivision Chareae on account of the presence of only five cells 
in the crown of the oospore: it differs from Tolypellopsis in the possession 
of stipular cells and from Lychnothamnns and Char a in having the oogonia 
below the antheridia. 
Distribution. The plant has a wide distribution. It occurs in Europe 
in the countries of Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and England, 
though in the last-named country it is of very rare occurrence, having been 
found only in two localities, at Newtown in the Isle of Wight, from which 
locality it seems now to have disappeared (Groves, ’90), and at the Fleet in 
Dorset (Mansell-Pleydell, ’92). It occurs also in Africa (Braun, ’67), but is 
not known in America, Asia, and Australia. The plants which I have 
investigated were grown from some dried mud sent from the neighbourhood 
of Port Elizabeth : they have now been growing in a healthy and apparently 
normal condition for more than two years. 
General Features. L. alopecuroides roots in very fine mud or slime, 
growing to a height of about 15 cms. and branching very little. The inter- 
nodes in the lower part of the plant may be as much as 4 or 5 cms. long, 
the leaves being 5 or 6 cms. The internodes decrease rapidly in length 
towards the apex of the plant, so that the whorls of leaves form a close 
tuft, which gives the plant that characteristic appearance whence it derives 
its specific name of alopecuroides. There is no formation of cortical tissue, 
and the whole plant has a rather delicate appearance. (See PL VIII, Fig. 1.) 
The leaves are generally eight in a whorl, though on nearly every stem 
there are variations in one or two whorls, which may have seven, nine, or 
ten leaves, and with greater rarity either less or more than these numbers. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXI. No. LXXXI. January, 1907.] 
